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Game Planning and Play calling

Just reading on various boards and you normally hear about how a coach didn't adjust or how play calling is predictable. Maybe how we should have ran this formation or not ran another, but I was curious why game planning and play calling aren't talked about more from how coaches normally do it.

So I thought I'd try my best to explain some of it. If any other coaches, specifically Dorgan can throw in their 2 pennies, that would be good too.

Game Planning:

Normally after a game on sunday, you tend to re-watch film and grade your own players for your position. So usually on a sunday, I would have grade my TEs on their effort, assignment and technique. Same for passing plays, adding routes and how their supposed to be ran too.

Usually after you go over the previous games, and talked to the specific players you get film from the other team. This usually happens by tape exchange from the coaches. In the NFL, you have access to ALL the games ever played. So your video games, can create a cutup for that position coach.

Organization of Duties:

Usually the OC gives each position coach a task. For instance, The OL coach may just focus on DL fronts. For example, the Bears run a 43 defense. So how many fronts have we seen them run against the formations we run in our offense.

Ie.

43
43 over
43 Under
43 wide
43 swim
43 wink

Goal line

Nickel

Dime

So that OL coach checks out the front, and then you get a good look on how they line up.

The TE coach usually will see where the LBs are lined up specifically the SAM and where he is in relation to the TE.

You're WR coach may be checking out CBs and any their alignment.

QB coach and OC could be tallying and drawing out their blitzes they run by down and distance.

RB coach may be focusing on Lbs and safties.

So basically after they watch film you get a sense of how to attack that defense. The video guys and scouts also give you a player scouting report so you may target specific players too. But keeping this to scheme and the general ways to game plan, is my goal right now.

So basically now you are breaking everything by down and distance, and have it all over the offensive meetings room on the dry board.

So you see ok, they run a lot of 43 over. The OC may ask the OL coach what pass protection should we use for that. How many protections and concepts do we want to install? How many concepts have been successful out of the 3 games that will be carried over on in the game plan and eventually your call sheet.

So you may get the OL coach saying. Ok on a 5 or 7 step drop let's run BOB protection. Who knows you have that successfully installed anyways? If so, then because of specific blitzes they run, you may tweak some things just for them. Ok they blitz couple Lbs. So let's move the RB there, and then have the LB come as the "hot" Lb, where Eli can see, and get the ball out. We can also have the line slide as well.

So during this phase you install protections and concepts. So because Peppers is a beast let's run more quick game, and 3 step passes. We can install rollout, bootleg, and sprint out protections, while adding more slants and screens this week. On the other hand, the staff may say let's add more 5 and 7 step concepts because we feel our Wrs can take adv. of their secondary.

Xs and Os:

Now you get an image of how their defense lines up. So you may add new plays to install in the gameplan or install plays existing in your playbook for this defense.

Ie.

4 Wide Set: Dime personnel, 43 front. That 43 front is typically a 43 swim front and they bring a sky safety with single high on top.

We feel that Smith and Nicks can High/low the safety, D. Manning by running C1 beaters such as NCAA concept on them, which is a 3 level vertical stretch that high/lows the single high.

SO something like that is the next step. Except you install your formations and then use how they line up in previous games as a guideline.

Practicing:

During the week now, you create cards and show how you want your scout defense to lineup based on the cards,and run that play. You may have installed new plays for this week, so this is the time to rep it. You do this during walkthrough, inside drill(running plays) and Pass skelly for passing plays.

Play calling:

So now you have all these plays and formations installed. So during the week you are creating a call sheet for this game. A call sheet is basically the Xs and Os in play terminology broken down by the OC to how he calls the game. Normally the standard way to do this is break everything by down and distance. On this call sheet you have timeouts, personnel packages for this game, opening scripted plays, half time adjustments, and so on.

Packages installed may be 4-10. For example:

NASCAR Personnel( Fast Wrs)

X: Nicks
Z: Manningham
Y Smith
H: Cruz

So that's our 4 wide fast WRs...

Regular: 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 RB

X Nicks
Z Smith
H Manningham
Y Boss

So you could have any amount taking adv. of individual players on their defense. Maybe NASCAR is effective vs them, so you use that personal more. For example before the play. NASCAR, NASCAR, Double Slot Strong Left X return all 9s on monday. That could be one of the successful plays we run.

Now play calling is based on what the OC is getting upstairs in terms of information. Usually after the first scripted series OR 2, the position coaches down stairs ask the players. IS what we studied or game planned for the way they are lining up? Now you get two answers.. YES or NO. If yes, we are fine, if no, you make adjustments and ask. So I would ask my TE player. When we line up in I pro left, is that LB at a 70T? If he says no, he is more ally, then we tell the guys upstairs.

But once the game is flowing the guys upstairs may see certain trends. But in terms of specific play calling Gilbride or any other OC would read from his call sheet.

For example:

3rd and (1-4)

1. Passing Play 1. Running play
2. Passing Play 2. Running play
3. Passing PLay 3. Running Play
4. Passing Play
5. Passing Play

So exchange the terms "passing play" or "running play" with specific terminology. Like I pro left 36 power. Shotgun-Double Slot right, 24 draw.

And basically now you are doing this for each down and distance, AND irregular down and distances too. So you may have a section for any down or 20 yards. So when we go 3rd and 30, we may have a few plays broken down in for that situation. Some really good OCs organize their call sheet in much detail.

But that's why as fans you may see some bread and butter plays ran over and over. Fans call this predictability, however the way the call sheet is broken down you see plays will repeat themselves in some fashion.

One aspect for creating a call sheet is also the statistics of what's going on offense. For example, how many total plays do we avg a game? Let's say 100 plays. Now in our system I want it to be 50-50.

SO 50 running plays and 50 passing plays. Now how many 3rd downs did we face this year. From there you keep breaking your call sheet down accordingly. Then that's your frame work. You then tweak it depending on opponent and your game plan.

But just thought I'd try my best to explain some of things going on behind the scenes on how coaches game plan. I am sure if anyone else who coached has something to add please feel free. I know Dorgan has a lot of experience, so maybe he can comment on a few things.

But game planning and play calling is more involved then what it may seem. Also, due to the dynamics of play calling you WILL get plays repeated. Remember your call sheet is finite, so in a course of a game you may get a down and distance to come up often for some reason. So that means you may see more plays from that section come up.

Great thread, Boss (or Shocking!). It's amazing how complex these offenses are. It's no wonder they can install anything with one weeks time. It makes sense that most teams coming off a bye week really do well with all that extra time.

I'm curious, if you think someone is a "bad" playcaller does that mean they're poor in the implementing of their offense in that weeks time or that they actually just don't call the correct play for the given situation during the game? Or maybe a combination of both. Or their overall play concepts aren't as good as say..Mike Martz.

Comment

I steal feel like the limitations of having to work on a call sheet could be worked around, at least for more foreseeable "****'s going wrong" scenarios, but strong post anyway and why I love our board.

BK

Originally posted by AcheTen

JPP is a better and more productive player than Brandon Graham

Originally posted by abaddon41_80

Is Shaun Hill a top 10 QB? Definitely not. Is he a top 20 one? Almost certainly.

Comment

I get this on offense as the offenses are far more complex than defenses. However I still get upset when defenses don't adjust. Bill up in New England is famous for reading the opposing teams offense the first drive of the game and reacting to what they think they have for a gameplan. I feel like Fewell didn't do that at all in Indy when after 10 mins it was pretty damn clear what he had going in wasn't going to work.

As much as I don't like the guy, it's pretty clear Rex Ryan is similar. No call sheet. He just calls it as he sees it.

Comment

Yeah, Jug brings up a good point. I'd like to see if defenses do the same thing or not.

I never see Bill or Rex with a call sheet. This is a great thread, really gives you insight to how much preparation goes into each game.

Don't know about that. I usually keep to my side of the ball. THat's the thing with football, when it comes to offense and defense. It's kind of like us and them sort of mentality. Defense works together and form bonds, and offensive players form bonds.

During lunch, defensive coaches would ask us about a certain play we ran in practice against them, and we'd explain, but other than that, it's kind of divided, not in a bad way of course.

I guess that's something you can observe throughout the season.

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Don't know about that. I usually keep to my side of the ball. THat's the thing with football, when it comes to offense and defense. It's kind of like us and them sort of mentality. Defense works together and form bonds, and offensive players form bonds.

During lunch, defensive coaches would ask us about a certain play we ran in practice against them, and we'd explain, but other than that, it's kind of divided, not in a bad way of course.

I guess that's something you can observe throughout the season.

My question that isn't really answered based on the call sheets is, why are some coaches so much better than others at making half time adjustments?

It seems like you live and die with that call sheet and can make minor adjustments to it, but nothing major.

And it makes sense too, because I was begging for screen passes vs Indy, and didn't see any. But then we saw a bunch vs the Titans. So my guess is they didn't have many screens on the call sheet bc they didn't anticipate that kind of pass rush, but then implemented it into their call sheet the following week just in case.

But why do some offensive coaches do a much better job than others at adjustments? Is it just them doing a better job of building up their call sheet during the week in anticipation of certain situations that arise during a game?

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My question that isn't really answered based on the call sheets is, why are some coaches so much better than others at making half time adjustments?

It seems like you live and die with that call sheet and can make minor adjustments to it, but nothing major.

And it makes sense too, because I was begging for screen passes vs Indy, and didn't see any. But then we saw a bunch vs the Titans. So my guess is they didn't have many screens on the call sheet bc they didn't anticipate that kind of pass rush, but then implemented it into their call sheet the following week just in case.

But why do some offensive coaches do a much better job than others at adjustments? Is it just them doing a better job of building up their call sheet during the week in anticipation of certain situations that arise during a game?

It comes down to what adjustments you have on your call sheet as plan B, C, and or D. What is your offensive system?

For example, Dallas has a numbered offensive system for their routes.

So a play might be Shotgun Double Slot Right Strong right - 9999 2 angle

So that's Double slot, with the Rb to the right of the Qb. All 9s would be all go routes, and 2 angle would be the 2 back running an angle route.

So sometimes in that system if a defense is doing something, you make adjustments on the fly and change the numbers to something else

Shotgun Double Slot Right, Strong Right, - 9509 ...

So if there is a sky safety, and single safety back, you can change the routes to be a go route, dig route, under route, go route.

That might not be on the call sheet, but you can call that. However not all offensive systems are the same, so some times the terminology might not allow that. Remember there are so many different variables because different OCs have different systems, different terminology for that system, different call sheets, different ways of organizing that call, and different coaches upstairs calling the plays.

OCs rely on the guys upstairs. Remember, the OCs are on the sideline so you can only adjust based on what your players are telling you, and what kind of information you're getting upstairs from the position coaches.

Yeah you live in die with the call sheet, and can't all of a sudden do anything major. Think about it.. you can't call of a sudden change your system mid game, and start running the option after going spread. You may in HS because systems can change week to week, but in the Pros it's VERY hard. You have certain amount of practice time, and you get your game plan in then. LOGISTICALLY, you can't call plays off chart, because you didn't rep and practice them throughout the week.

It's like saying, this bio test is on chapter 1, 2 and 3. And then me testing you with a few questions on chapter 10 and 11. How can that work? You didn't study it or go over it in detail, and do practice problems throughout the week. Same with football in a way. How can I ask you all the plays if you didn't practice it against the scout team? We didn't set up the practice cards based on their defense even, so you can't run these things.

So yeah sutble changes work, but you can't take it back to formula mid game. That's where you hope your game plan is solid and that your call sheet based on your game plan is good too.

Think of it this way, Let's play a game. You have 70 plays I have 70 plays, and now we call them. My 70 plays may be more 3, 5, 7 step drops against your defense. However, unforeseen issues arise, and my OTs get hurt OR have a bad game. Now I am kinda limited because my 70 plays are based on a certain gameplan. So that goes screw me in a way, because it makes calling a lot of my plays hard. Right, wrong or otherwise, this is the logistics of it. Now I may have more plays on the side, in the adjustments section, but I can't have too many plays because I have to have my players practice it throughout the week. If not, then maybe they were from last weeks game, but still I'd feel more comfortable if we practiced it.

You can bet adjustments are ALWAYS made. The question is.. Have they worked or have they not worked? But when fans say the OC didn't adjust, that's BS! He did, but we, as fans can't see it. Why? Because we were not at the offensive meetings. We don't have a call sheet to see what's going on. Finally, we don't have a head set either, so we can't hear the conversation or thought process.

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I don't think there have been too many adjustments that have need to be made with the offense. It's just execution. Stupid turnovers inside the red zone, and WRs tipping INTs into the air.

The defense on the other hand, albeit one game, had their lunches handed to them. And continued with the same plan. Don't they say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. That's how I felt about the Indy game. It was clear our defensive gameplan was crap and wasn't going to work after two Colt offensive drives. Yet took way too long to adjust.

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I don't think there have been too many adjustments that have need to be made with the offense. It's just execution. Stupid turnovers inside the red zone, and WRs tipping INTs into the air.

The defense on the other hand, albeit one game, had their lunches handed to them. And continued with the same plan. Don't they say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. That's how I felt about the Indy game. It was clear our defensive gameplan was crap and wasn't going to work after two Colt offensive drives. Yet took way too long to adjust.

Actually I disagree, our defensive game plan was great and logical against the Colts. What killed us was that they caught us with our pants down AND they were patient. You see Peyton can wing the ball all over and pass on everyone. We figured based on film, and past tendencies that they would try to run, and then have Peyton carry the team.

So the game plan was nickel and dime personnel and stop the run. We did that in the Panthers game too I believe. So we thought they would do that against the Colts AND then we'd be prepared to handle Manning when he passed the ball.. EXCEPT, they ran the ball and stayed patient to running the ball, which is something he didn't do since his rookie year. That was the issue. We were prepared for the logical way of how things would unfold, that Peyton caught us with our pants down, and stuck to the run. We couldn't stop the run, and he stuck with it. It was clear, we expected him to get those running plays out of his system and start throwing again. But he never did that.

So was the game plan good and logical based on past trends from film. Sure. But credit Peyton for calling his plays AND sticking to the run. That's the variable we didn't expect. We expected him to stop and throw all over, where we could be prepared. Thats what killed us. The game plan was fine based on what we saw on film, and past tendencies. However, he did a heck of a job of staying patient, and that negated our gameplan in a way. That's just a HOF QB beating us. That happens in football. You learn, and move on. I am sure if we stayed balanced, he probably would have passed and killed us. Then what would we say? How stupid is our game plan, the Colts never run, and Peyton can throw, so why didn't we prepare for him throwing? So you see, your screwed either way, fans will talk smack about it. I thought it was a good game plan and more importantly logical. We just got beat by a first ballot HOF QB. You just tip your hat to Peyton and move on to the next game.

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I thought the plan was great and logical too. When GF told me that we only dressed two DTs that day, I said smart idea. We need all DEs and DBs out there. However we were wrong. And that was blantantly obvious 10 minutes into the game.

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I thought it was a bad idea at the time but whatever. The problem is we only have 4 DT's on the team so on any given day probably only 3 of them will dress anyway.

I don't think the DTs were the problem. It took Fewell forever to even put LBers on the field. Having Kiwi or Tuck at DT with Canty isn't terrible but we stayed in nickel and dime way too long when they were constantly gashing us. Sure if we adjusted earlier, Peyton may have torched us earlier, but I would have taken a shot with that unknown rather than what was happening on the field.

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Yeah, but I am sure the defensive staff kept waiting for Peyton say ok, enough running, let's throw the ball and attack this defense. However, he stayed extremely patient and stuck to the run. 42 times they ran or something. He hasn't done that since his rookie year!! That's amazing! That was a tendency breaker in it's own right. Now it's on film, and makes DCs weary because it can show that he has the patience to stuck to something he may not want to do. So now what? Die by the run or die by passing? That's like asking someone electric chair or lethal injection? That's VERY tough now when you play that team. He showed he is fine running the ball. And we all know he can kill you through the air. So now what? Excellent the way they responded. Again, can't fault our game plan. Logical gameplan, but we got beat and undone. You tip your hand to the other team and shake your head in a surprised manner for that one.